


Try to understand

by Kasumi_Mitsukari



Category: League of Legends
Genre: Fix-it fic, M/M, original characters ending up in an alternate universe, swapped universe
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-22
Updated: 2020-12-02
Packaged: 2021-03-10 04:22:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 16,209
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27667427
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kasumi_Mitsukari/pseuds/Kasumi_Mitsukari
Summary: Jayce and Viktor hated each other. There are many reasons why but it was undeniable that both of them felt the same. And the 25th of October was the date were all the build up anger exploded. The day before was the day were Viktor stole the shuriman crystal from Jayces workshop and the defender of tomorrow decided that it was time to end their story once and for all. What they did not expect was that they would end up in an alternate Universe were everything was the opposite were they would be forced to life the life of the other one. And that, maybe, all the hatred and anger between them was rooted in a big misunderstanding.
Relationships: Jayce/Viktor (League of Legends)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 10





	1. Jayce

It was the morning of the 25th of October.

  


The sun wasn't even up yet and the streets of Piltover were completely devoid of any people. Everything was peaceful and under a veil of silence. And while Jayce stood there, in front of the large window that provided him with an excellent view over the entire city of Piltover he knew he would do anything to protect this place, these people and everything that Piltover stood for. It was his home after all.  
“Do you believe in fate?”  
Jayce closed his eyes as Vi came closer and looked outside as well. The sun was barely out and her pale rays shone through the empty streets.   
“I don't know”, he answered after a while. The hammer in his left hand felt heavier and heavier with every passing second. He knew what was about to happen in a few hours.   
“Last week I would have answered it with no. There is no logical sense in ,fate'. At least not for me. But after what happened yesterday....” He stopped and the wound on his left arm started to sting again. It was treated and healed well enough but the memory of Viktor bursting into his workshop, his eyes behind this stupid mask of his filled with so many emotions that Jayce was not able to decipher them in that moment. But now he was sure it was pure hatred and fury he saw before his former classmate attacked him and stole part of the crystal he was supposed to analyze.   
Vi laid a hand on his shoulder and teared him away from this painful memory.   
“To answer your question properly”, he said and his grip around the hammer tightened. “I do believe that Viktor and me are destined to fight each other. Call it fate or just the logical result of many unfortunate events. There is no way around it.”   
His eyes wandered to the parts of Zaun he was able to see from up here. “And I do believe that this was clear since the first time we met, back in the academy.”   
Vi sighed. “Jayce. I knew he stole that Shuriman crystal from you but is that really a reason to rush down there and fight him? Don't you think that this is a little bit too extreme?”  
Jayce huffed and looked over his shoulder to his friend. “To extreme? He broke into MY home and attacked me! Who knows what he plans in that big head of his? We do not know how powerful this crystal really is! This could be a threat to everyone in Piltover and I can't allow it that he destroys Piltover just because of a mistake I did!”  
His eyes almost glowed in the light of the sun.  
“I will protect them! And if that means that I need to kill Viktor for that I will do that!”  
Vi eyed him with concern in her eyes. “Do you really think Viktor would be able to do such a-”  
“Yes!”  
He huffed and shrugged her hand away from his shoulder. “He is not the Viktor we knew from the academy. Or...no. He is, but we were not able to see what he was capable of.”  
He felt how his hands started to shake. “He is not per se evil. But his definition of moral and what is right and what is wrong is so twisted and.....I believe he broke. His mind was always a little bit fragile. Guess that is part of your life when you are from Zaun. But after the academy threw him out he went absolutely crazy.” He laid a hand onto the glass of the window. It was cold and helped to steady his shaking hand. “He started to replace his body with mechanical parts Vi! Because ,humanity is a failure of evolution'. No sane person in the world would talk like that, let alone do it!”  
Viktors view on everything was always a thing they argued about back in the days. Jayce never understood why someone could think that way, especially someone with an intellect that was almost as great as his own.   
“He would sacrifice every single Piltovan without a second thought if that would allow him to reach his goals.”  
“And what is his goal?”  
Jayce laughed. Even if it was a sad one. “Who knows. He always talked about saving the Zaunites back in the academy. I believe that this was indeed his goal. But I am almost convinced that this goal has changed since than. Or....it transformed. Changed shape. In it's core it may still be the same but the way he wants to archive it has changed drastically. Even his weird plans to ,improve humanity' has shifted that way. In the academy he once told me that his augmentations were to help people that lost limbs or are very ill. It was convincing enough that I thought that he had some sort of moral that was right. But now he seems to do these augments not only for the ill and injured. As far as I know he forces people to go through these operations only to play god. Maybe because he thinks that the only way for his fellow Zaunites to have a chance for a better life is to fight against Piltover.”  
His hand on the glass clenched into a fist. And his eyes flared up. “He is our enemy. And a threat, not only for Piltover, but for every human in Runeterra. And I am the only one who is able to stop this once and for all!”  
Vi lowered her gaze. “And what if Caitlyn and I-”  
“No Vi. Viktor is dangerous and unpredictable. I could never forgive myself if one of you gets hurt in the process. No....I will do it. I will fix the mess I created!”  
He did let it sound like his motive to fight Viktor was noble but deep down he knew that one of the main reasons why he wanted to fight him alone was his pride. His ego would never allow to let someone else fight his former friend. Viktor had not only attacked him in his own home, no, the path he had chosen was one were he sacrificed their friendship for his twisted ideals. Jayce never had friends. He never needed them. No one was ever able to keep up with his knowledge and intelligence. No conversation would be satisfying enough to go through the troubles of maintaining a working relationship with someone. That was until this new student from Zaun appeared in his life. Sure, he hated him with every cell in his body and, god forbid, his morals were downright non existent. But he would lie when he would say that he didn't enjoy their little arguments after the lectures. Sometimes they would sit there for hours because no one wanted to lose against the other. Viktor was weird, self centered and from Zaun, he would never understand how it was to prove yourself over and over again just to make the higher ups happy. But as creepy and non emotional as he was sometimes he still was his one and only friend. And it had crushed Jayces heart when he found out about Viktors plans with this goddamn diving suit. That he had almost ripped the free will from someone who was already doing the nastiest work you could do in Piltover just to test his hypothesis. It felt like he had used him like one of his tools for one of his sick experiments. Jayce had felt so betrayed that after all these days were they had talked about morals and how things worked up here Viktor was still not ready to accept them and decided to do whatever the hell he wants.   
The memory alone hurt a lot even after all this time. But it meant it was something personal for him. Jayce just needed to be the one who stopped Viktor. There was no way around it.   
“I will go as soon as the sun is going down”, he said to Vi. His voice was filled with determination. “Like that I will have the whole night without someone noticing that I am gone.”  
He turned around. “Please Vi. Do not follow me. If I am not back by morning you can assume that I am dead. In that case....” He stopped for a moment. The mere thought that Viktor would kill him was somehow disturbing. But not unlikely.   
“If you are not back tomorrow morning I will come down there and drag your selfish ass out of there.”  
He looked up. Surprised how grim Vi sounded. “Vi I....”  
“And IF you are dead by then”, she continued and her smile came back. “I will finish it for you. I promise Jayce! Piltover is save as long as I am here!” She laughed and Jayce smiled slightly. “Thanks Vi.....really”, he mumbled. Then he shouldered his hammer and followed by Vi made his way down the stairs to his workshop to make a few last adjustments to his new weapon.  
  
  
  


______________________________  
  


Viktors laboratories were located deep down. The elevator Jayce used was a little bit too fast for his liking but on the other hand would it take an eternity if it was any slower.   
When he wandered through Piltovers streets around 11 pm he met no one. The station was empty too and he had thought with a smile to thank Vi for that later. She must have organized it so he would be alone on his way to Viktors domain. Sure he wore a long robe so even if someone was out so late no one would have been able to recognize him. But he was grateful nonetheless because the giant hextech hammer would have drawn a lot of attention in his direction anyways.   
And now he was on his way deep down into Zauns depths. A depressing location to live but for Viktors purposes was it just perfect. Not many people found there way here and even less stayed for longer than necessary. When he reached Emberflit Alley he stopped for a moment. Unsure how he wanted to approach the mad inventor. It was in that moment that he recognized the weight of this situation. It was very likely that only one of them would survive. But Jayce was not afraid to die. He was more afraid that he would not be able to stop Viktor. The day before he had only got a glimpse of Viktors newest augmentations. It was fact that he would face an opponent he knew close to nothing about. At least not about his enemys pure strength and new abilitys. But he knew that it was very likely that Viktors lab was surrounded with safety measures against intruders and that a sneaked attack was almost completely impossible. It was not his style anyway so a sudden entrance it was then.   
The metal of the door screeched before his hammer slammed it out of the frame. As expected an alarm started immediately and filled the giant warehouse like structure with it's loud sound and red blinking lights.   
And what these lights illuminated almost shocked Jayce enough that he did not hear the familiar, and yet so different, voice over the shrilling alarms.  
“Jayce what on earth are you doing?”  
In front of him were hundreds of motionless body's, strapped to examination tables and connected via tubes to a weird machine in the back of the room that was powered with the crystal Viktor stole from him. Near the unconscious body's were automatons, ready to transform each one of these people into mindless robots. A lot of the people were injured in some way or another and the thought that it was because Viktor forced them somehow to be here made him sick. It was such a horrible sight....  
“How dare you....”, he mumbled, shaking. “You....always said that you wanted to save your people and not.....not that!”  
His eyes met Viktors that glowed behind his metal mask. Long since gone were his human eyes. Replaced by mechanical ones. Better, faster, non human ones.  
And they stared at him for a moment before Viktor said only two words: “Kill him!”   
After that everything happened too fast for Jayce to process. A bunch of automatons ran in his direction with the intention to kill him. The first one that approached shattered almost immediately in a million pieces after Jayces hammer hit it's chest straight on. The next two flew through the room and were destroyed when they hit the wall. But for ever single one he destroyed there were 3 more to replace it. Soon he was overpowered and pressed to the ground by the sheer amount of metal bodys that ran in his direction. His brain switched to survival mode and he screamed as he started to swing the hammer around him, destroying everything in it's path until he was finally free and able to run towards his enemy. “VIKTOR!”, he screamed and raised the hammer. Viktor cursed and raised his staff in the last second to block Jayces attack. It was crystal clear that Jayce was the superior one in pure strength. Viktor had always been a very slender and weak man and even his numerous augmentations did not change that because they were not meant to win in a fight. But this was not just about pure muscles and physical strength. Viktor had more than one way to compensate his lack in this department with a lot of weapons he created for a fight like this. His staff was one and his third arm the second one. Both were equipped with extremely dangerous lasers and electricity that could kill him in mere seconds if he was not careful enough.   
“JAYCE! YOU IDIOT YOU KILLED THEM!”, Viktor screamed and the orb that was attached to the end of his staff started to sizzle. Jayce jumped backwards and readied himself for the coming attack. Metal met metal and Jayce was more than grateful that he was wearing his leather gloves. Otherwise Viktors electricity would have killed him immediately.   
“You mean I killed your army of mindless robot slaves!”, he hissed and gave the handle of his hammer a push. Viktor stumbled backwards and Jayce took this opportunity. He ran the few meters to close the gap between them, jumped and with the help of the build in nozzles at the end of the handle of his hammer he swung his hammer in a great bow over his head and let it fall down on his opponent in an hextech induced swing. Viktor screamed in pain and Jayce felt how his half augmented rib cage broke under the sheer power of the hit. It was so strong that the floor under Viktor had splintered too and started to fall apart under their combined weight. Jayce had no time to celebrate his successful hit because Viktor was far from done. He was not really human after all. Not anymore.   
The laser he shot from his third hand missed Jayces face only for a few centimeters and he could feel how the closeness alone was enough to burn his skin. He jumped sideways but Viktor had anticipated that and Jayce realized too late that he ran directly into a trap. In seconds his whole body was paralyzed and he was unable to move. “Shit...”, he cursed and tried to swing his hammer. Unsuccessful. Viktors inventions were always perfect. He knew that all too well. So he had no other choice than to watch how Viktor climbed out of the little crater that Jayces hammer had formed. He was clearly in pain, so at least that part of him was still functional. At least it was right now.   
“You bastard”, he mumbled when he came closer to him. Half of his mask was destroyed and he could see his face for the first time in what seemed like an eternity. He had changed so so much and was still the same Viktor he remembered. He had not aged, not much at least, but his eyes had changed a lot. Not only were they not organic anymore and devoid of any life. They lost that spark they had back in the academy when he had talked about something he really liked or a project he was working on. The same spark he had whenever he found a project worth his time and intellect. The spark of someone who was passionate about the things they do. It was gone and left was nothing more than hatred and anger.   
“Do you even know what you've done?”  
Jayce hold his gaze stubbornly. Blood ran down Viktors face and he looked like he was close to fainting. That hit Jayce gave him earlier must have hit something important.   
“I will kill you”, Viktor said and raised his still human hand. In it was a shard of metal, sharp and deadly when you knew where to stab. And Viktor with his anatomical knowledge knew exactly where it would kill him in a slow and painful manner, that was clear. Jayce clenched his teeth, his eyes burning with hatred.   
“Then do it!”, he hissed. “I knew from the beginning that one of us would die. I just hoped....I would be able to stop you before I die....before you could hurt more innocent people.”  
Viktor paused and stared at him.  
“What are you talking abou-”  
All of a sudden an immense quake shook the building and the floor started to break apart under them. Viktor screamed in surprise and Jayce felt how the device that held him captive trembled and shattered as a rock falling from the ceiling hit it. Immediately he gathered all his strength and ran towards Viktor who was still too confused to react. More bones cracked when Jayces hammer made contact with their target. Viktor had crossed his arms in the last moment over his body to protect his already broken ribs and the hit destroyed his metal and human arm instead. He screamed and fell to the ground were Jayce placed the end of the handle onto his sternum to hold him down. “In the name of Piltover and all it's citizens”, he huffed out of breath from this intense fight. “I will-”  
“WATCH OUT!”  
With more force than Jayce had anticipated was still in his slender form Viktor pushed the hammer and Jayce away from him. Before he was able to process what had happened he heard a earsplitting loud crashing sound and a second later he saw that a giant bolder had fallen down just were he had stood before. Half borrowed under it was Viktor, his legs completely crushed by the heavy stone and pure pain in his eyes. “Why....”, Jayce mumbled. “Why did you....”   
“You bloody idiot!”, Viktor huffed and looked up to him. The light in his eyes flickering slightly as if he was switching in and out of consciousness. “The whole building will collapse! We do not know how the crystal will react if the machine blows up....” he coughed and blood sprinkled the floor beneath him. “Save as many as you can! Bring the ones who are still alive out of here you bastard!”   
Another quake shook the building and the cracks in the floor almost reached the machine now.   
“GO NOW!”, Viktor screamed but before Jayce could stand up and run a rock that fell from the ceiling crashed into the machine that stored part of the Shuriman crystal. The sound of metal that was torn apart and Viktors desperate screams filled the room but Jayce did barely notice what was said. It was as if a blanked was thrown over the whole scenery. The sounds were dulled and the pain was almost gone. A strange light filled the room more and more until everything was engulfed into it. And then everything went white.

  


  


He felt Pain.  
His whole body was screaming in agony and he was wondering if he was dying. Did Viktor die as well? Probably. When the explosion of the machine had reached him, Viktor must be in an even worse state considered he was closer to the detonation  _and_ badly injured.   
Slowly he opened his eyes and expected to see the destroyed ceiling of Viktors laboratory above him. But to his surprise he was greeted with an old, gray concrete ceiling that was far too close to belong to the high ceilings of the building he was in a few moments ago. And it was in that moment that he realized that he was laying in a bed too.   
“You are awake!”  
He recognized the voice immediately. Vi. He smiled and closed his eyes again. He felt so exhausted....  
“Is it morning already? How long was I unconscious?”  
He heard how she sat down next to his bed. “Not for long. You were lucky that this machine did not destroy the whole building when it exploded. In that case you would be buried under a pile of rubble by now.”

He nodded and tried to sit up. Hissing in pain in the process.   
“Wow, careful!” Vi helped him and Jayce stared down at his body. His whole upper body was wrapped in bandages and he felt how a few ribs were broken.   
“4 broken ribs, a concussion and a very nasty wound on your left arm”, Vi summarized when she saw his wandering gaze. “It looks worse than it really is but you should take it easy for a while.”  
“What's with Viktor? Did you find him?”  
“Who?”  
Jayce looked up for the first time and his heart stopped. Next to him was Vi but she looked like a completely different person. She had longer hair, tied into a ponytail, was wearing glasses and a lab coat. It was a strange look on her.   
“Is everything okay?”, she asked concerned and tilted her head slightly. He was still staring at her and tried to understand what the hell was going on. “Where am I?”, he asked after a few minutes were he tried to calm himself. Something was extremely wrong here and now that he looked closer he realized more weird details. He had presumed that when Vi had found him and with his treated wounds that he would be back in Piltover. Maybe in the hospital or back home. But this room with it's brittle concrete walls and the absence of any window resembled not a single building he knew from Piltover. Was he still in....

“Zaun....”, he mumbled while his eyes scanned frantically the room. There was not much to see except for a small nightstand next to his bed and the green tinged lamp hanging above them, flooding the room with an uncomfortable bright and clinical light.   
“Zaun?”  
Vi's voice stopped his wild thoughts that tried to understand the situation he was in and he looked over to her. She looked as confused as he felt right now.  
“Yea Zaun. You found me and I was too injured to bring me back to Piltover, right? Right!?” It was more a plea for answers than a real question. Vi smiled a sad smile and took a clipboard out of a bag she brought with her, writing something down.   
“The concussion seems to cause a bigger problem then I have previously anticipated. I had hoped it was just a mild injury but it seems that you had hit your head hard enough to forget a few things.”  
Jayce stared at her while she wrote something down.  
“It is important to see how much the impact has an influence on your brain and your memories.”  
She looked up and her eyes were filled with concern. “So Jayce. Do you remember what happened?”  
He blinked for a moment before he answered.   
“Yea....I went to Zaun to fight Viktor because he was a danger to Piltover. A...And the fight destroyed the entire complex and this crazy machine Viktor had built was shattered in the process.”  
Vi frowned and wrote everything down. “It is worse than I thought”, she said. “When I remember correctly....wasn't Viktor that one classmate you talked about? From the academy?”  
Jayce nodded immediately. “Yea you know him remember? The crazy guy that suggested to improve Caitlyn's gun and your fists”   
More confusion was written all over Vi's face and Jayce felt how he got more and more frustrated. It was as if he was talking to a complete stranger!  
“Why would he be a danger to Piltover Jayce?”, she said in a silent and calm voice. Almost as if she was talking to a panicking child. It was infuriating.  
“Why? WHY!? I don't know. Maybe because he blames every single Piltovan for the state Zaun is in? That the only way to save Zaun is to destroy Piltover? I saw it! He was creating an entire army of killer robots and if he is still out there he will...”  
“Jayce....calm down....no one is building anything!”  
She laid a hand on his shoulder again but he pushed it away. His eyes burning with fury. “DO NOT try to convince me otherwise. I SAW them!”  
“But it makes no sense Jayce...”  
“AND WHY NOT?”  
“Because Zaun is flourishing more than ever before! Every person with a higher degree in any field of science is flooding into the city of progress and they need us to maintain this status. Why would any Zaunite would want to attack us? It should be us who consider attacking them but no one here is ready to risk a war against the far stronger upper class!”  
Jayce stared at her and a thick silence fell over them. “What....are you talking about?”, he asked after a while. “Zaun? Upper Class? But Piltover is....”  
“Under Zauns Control for over a century now. And you are the only one who wants to do something about it, remember? You were intelligent enough to be able to got to the Zaun academy and came back after a giant chem explosion destroyed almost an entire district. You built that machine that was supposed to help the people and it exploded because of an miscalculation. And now you are here, remember?”  
It was as if a giant stone fell into his stomach when the truth hit him with full force. He was right. Something was wrong but it was not only Vi's appearance or the fact that he was still in Zaun. No he started to realize what must have happened. The crystal had contained a lot of stored potential and the explosion of the machine must have freed this power. But he must have underestimated the stored power within the shuriman crystal. He had thought the power level inside it was a little more than above average but it seemed that it was far beyond human imagination. But was it strong enough to mess with time and space itself? Had it changed the reality itself or just the past at some point? It was hard to tell but he knew that he had to find more information first before he could find a way out of this chaos.   
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath to stop his mind from panicking. 2 things were now important: play along to gather more information and find out what happened to Viktor. _If_ he survived _and_ ended up here as well. Together they may be able to find a way to reverse all of this.   
“Jayce?”  
He opened his eyes and smiled as he looked over to Vi. He felt so exhausted all of a sudden. “You are right Vi...”, he said slowly. “I.....can't remember everything and....what I remember is a mess....” His fingers traveled down his bandaged forehead. It was a lie, of course, but it was the easiest way for him right now.....  
She smiled and laid the clipboard aside. The sad smile still on her face. “Don't worry Jayce”, she said in this infuriatingly calm voice. “This may be only temporary. And even if these memories are lost forever we can make new ones.”  
She pointed at herself. “You know that I am Vi, right? That's a start.” He nodded. “I was born in Zaun but decided to come down to Piltover to help the people as good as I can. I became a Doctor because medical personal is terrifyingly scarce down here.”  
Her smile disappeared. “These poor people down here....they suffer so much. Not only under the constant fear of illness and pain that this chem waste causes but also under these horrible Chem barons.....And you are the only one that is smart enough to do something about it. That was the reason why you went to the academy in the first place”  
It was painful how familiar this all sounded. Just with the little difference that it was Viktors Story before and now it was his own.   
“Yea.....that sounds.....familiar”, was all he was able to say. And the timeline was before the events that resulted in Viktor being kicked out of Piltovers scientific society. Interesting. That meant that _if_ he was in this alternate timeline with him he was most likely in the city that was Piltover once. And he would need his help even though he hated to admit that.   
His train of thoughts were interrupted once more when the door to the room was kicked open and another familiar, and yet so different, face entered the room.  
“Vi I have another one”  
It was Caitlyn. Or at least the Caitlyn of this alternate Universe or however you would name this mess. She wore almost completely black, a thick long scarf wrapped around her throat and a she was wearing dark red round glasses. The face she made was grim and serious and she was holding a sniper that looked a lot like the one she had in Jayces original world. Just a little bit more modified and...was that blood on the handle?  
“Oh hi Cait”, Vi chirped happily and stood up. “Where is he?”  
“Next room”, Caitlyn said with short and sharp words. “Very good! I will go and look after him. Oh and look, Jayce is finally awake!”  
Caitlyns ice cold gaze met Jayces and he shuddered. This version of her was so much more terrifying. “Hi”, she only said after a short pause. “Happy to see you alive.” And with that she turned around and left. Vi laughed and scratched nervous the back of her head. “She is always like this.”, she said and turned around to face him again. “She is Piltovers best assassin and head hunter. Very reliable and a friend of mine. You and her argue sometimes but that is because you want to help people without hurting them while she....well you can guess it”  
He nodded and looked away. This place was as bizarre as it was interesting. That was for sure.  
___________

Vi would not allow him to leave for another two and a half month to give his wounds a chance to heal. In this time he spend almost all of his hours reading. About this world, the dynamics of Piltover and Zaun and about Hextech energy and the power of known crystals from Shurima and places near the desert kingdom. In the short time he had with the crystal he had not found out a lot. Almost nothing to be honest. And without it it was almost impossible to find a way out of this predicament. But he learned that this Universe was indeed very close to the one he was from. At least what happened event wise. It all was just swapped in some way. Piltover was swapped with Zaun and with them their citizens. But it had almost no impact on how things end up in the end. For example was Vi a Doctor in this timeline but that does not mean that Zaun was without their own butt kicking officer. She just swapped her place with someone else. And Jayce seemed to play Viktors role in this chaotic play.   
One day Vi had brought him an old looking, lether bound book and explained to him that it was his diary and that it may help him remember a few things. And it may, if he would be the Jayce from this timeline. Like this it was still very valuable to him because it would give him a lot of information about this place and his other self.   
He seemed to be a wimpy looser, just as Viktor was in his timeline, and was talking a lot about his plans to save this place. How boring. Jayce had expected a lot more from his alternate self. Most of the ideas he wrote about were not even worth to read and the rest was just half finished bullshit. A device that would be able to clean a certain area after a chem explosion from dangerous fumes and gases? Yea sure but it would not fix the bigger problem Zaun, or in this case Piltover, had. Instead of concentrating all his thoughts how he could prevent said explosions in the first place this Jayce only seemed to see an immediate problem instead of the bigger picture. Something Viktor did all the time back in the academy and something Jayce always hated about the other inventor. It was so short-sighted and limited a normally brilliant mind. So Jayce decided to show everyone how easy it was to help these helpless people with no effort whatsoever. And if it was just to show Viktor what an idiot he was once he met him again!  
He smiled and started to scribble a few ideas onto the empty pages of the diary.   
“What is that?”  
He looked up, so deep in thoughts that he had not heard Vi entering the room. She was carrying a tray with his dinner for the day and put it down next to him on the nightstand.  
He grinned and showed her the diary. “This, my dear Vi, is the future of Piltover”, he said with a confident smile on his face.   
“A.....ball?”  
“Excuse me?! THAT is not just a ball!”  
He showed her the rest of the pages. “This is a device that will filter all poison out of the substances that Zaun pumps down here! We need to put it inside the big main tubes that come from the upper city and all that will pass through it will be clear and fresh water~”  
Vi frowned. “And the toxic waste? Were will it end up?” Jayces smug smile transformed into an evil one. “Back up of course~ They produce that crap? They will get it back. As easy as that!”  
Vi stared at him, eyes filled with concern and disbelieve. “I do not know what happened but you are different since that accident....”  
Jayce closed the book and took his meal with a knowing smile. “Oh do not be silly”, he said grinning. “I just realized what I need to do to.”  
“But you will kill innocent people like that!”  
Jayces smile widened. He could almost hear Viktors voice in the back of his head.   
_,What a solution. What happened to your stupid morals and that the free will is the most important thing?'  
_ Yea....Viktor would be furious if he could see what he planned.  
_'Don't be stupid!',_ he answered internally this imaginary Viktor , _Piltovers morals never reached over it's own borders. It was never meant for other people. Otherwise the whole concept of pumping our junk down to Zaun would not have worked in the first place! And to be fair: They all have the free will to leave, right?'  
_ He snickered and started to plan how he wanted to bring his idea to life.  
____________

  


The hardest part was to find all the materials he needed to build his machine more than once. He would need around 20 when he planned to place them in every single pipe that leaded down into Piltover. The old laboratory that was located not too far away from Vi's hospital was completely destroyed and he knew nothing about this weird place to know were to start his search. This variant of Piltover was not a complete copy of the Zaun he knew from his universe. It was like someone mashed both cities together and now you had a weird looking place that had still parts of piltovan architecture but was drowned in the weird green light and fumes that he knew from Zaun. It was bizarre and he could not imagine how the new Zaun must look like.   
He wandered around for a very long time and recognized a few people he knew from Piltover back in his own universe. Another thing he noticed was that a lot of people tried to avoid him actively or stared at him for an uncomfortable long time. But he knew that kind of attention to well so he held his nose high and his posture as confident as always just to show everyone that he did not care. He wandered aimlessly around, deeper and deeper into the depths of this new Piltover until he came along a giant and abandoned factory complex. It was so deep down that no light from the surface reached it and the dim greens and yellows from the pipes were the only light sources.   
“Well that looks promising”, he mumbled and climbed over the small fence that surrounded the factory. And he was right. Only a few corners away were giant piles of metal and electrical parts.  
„Bingo~“  
He grinned and started to rummage through the parts until he found what he was searching for. “This is even easier than I thought~”  
A loud sound echoed through the cavern like space the factory building was in and the sound of scratching metal against concrete came closer and closer. Surprised he looked up and was able to duck under the incoming attack in the last possible second. The large metal piece crashed into the pile above him. The edges of it so sharp that it cut right through several layers of junk without so much as bent a little bit. This thing would have decapitated him without any doubt if he would not have dodged in time. Shocked and surprised he looked back down the pile to his attacker and almost chocked when he realized who it was.  
“Stanwick?”, he stammered and slid down to the man he knew as a highly respected professor back in the academy. But the man who stood in front of him was more like a distorted and abused version of the man he knew. He had several body augmentations, one of which was a completely robotic arm and a device around his mouth that was most likely to help him breathe in some way. His eyes gleamed in a dangerous green and he stared at him with hatred and pure distrust.   
“You do realize that this is my property”, he said and his voice sounded nothing like the one Jayce knew. Possibly because it wasn’t his own anymore, replaced with a mechanical one. “And that you tried to steal from me is a direct attack against me and all I stand for!” He raised his mechanical arm, ready to attack again. “Woaaa chill man I did not mean to steal!”, Jayce said immediately and stumbled a few meters away from him. He should have brought a weapon with him! He knew how dangerous Zaun was back in his Universe. But somehow he had not thought about it because everything looked so much like Piltover….And now he was in this peculiar situation without a way to defend himself. Great.   
“I did not know that this place belonged to someone. It looked so abandoned that I thought-”  
Another metal piece flew his way and he jumped sideways to dodge it. “I am not stupid Jayce!”, Stanwick screamed, preparing his next attack by sharpening the edges of the next metal part he was about to throw. “I already told you the last time you tried to steal from me that I will kill you if you do it again! I thought I was clear enough!”  
“Ah....about that-”  
Another piece flew past him and he felt how it grazed his cheek. He cursed when blood started to flow from the little cut it had caused and stumbled a few more meters away from the crazy man in front of him. And he realized that he had not a lot of options left. He would never run away. Not only would it be plausible that Stanwick would catch up with him relatively fast but it would be something he could never arrange that with himself and his ego. The other option he had was his charm. Jayce took a deep breath. Yea he could talk his way out of this he was good with that! More than once he had convinced a professor, back in the academy, to sponsor a project of his they would normally refuse just because it was absolutely absurd and cursed with a low success rate.   
“Stanwick...see” He smiled his most charming smile. “I need a few parts to create a device that will be able to destroy Zaun in less than a month. Plus it will give us the ability to rise and be the biggest-”  
He winced as another metal piece landed directly in front of him, slicing into the concrete there without any problem.   
Sure he had exaggerated maybe a little bit but how would Stanwick be able to tell that? Puzzled Jayce looked up to the man again who came closer and closer. Jayce tried to back away a little bit more when his back bumped into a wall and he realized too late that he was cornered. Stanwick stood directly in front of him. Far bigger than Jayce remembered him and with this glowing, inhumane eyes looking down at him. And all of a sudden Jayce felt how all the confidence he always wore like a medal melted away like hot metal inside a smelter. Instead he felt something he felt the last time when he had fought with Viktor. Fear. But it was so much intenser than the fear he knew. Not only the fear to die, no, it was the intense and pure fear to die without being able to do anything against it. It filled him with something he never felt in his live: existential dread. This man would kill him, bury his corpse under one of these giant piles of trash and no one would ever find out what had happened to him. He would just stop existing without anyone who would remember him.   
He wanted to fight, wanted to do anything to escape this horrible realization but his whole body was like paralyzed of fear. Cold sweat ran down his face and his entire body was shaking in terror while he stared up to Stanwick, who transformed his giant, metallic arm into a comically big saw. So that was how he would die. Not in a heroic fight to the death against his arch nemesis nor surrounded by his beloved ones and friends.   
He snorted internally as Stanwick raised the weapon. What beloved ones? What friends? He never had any. And he had never cared about it. Friends and family were just too much work. And the most people were too stupid anyway to have a real conversation with him. And in that moment he realized that there was in fact one person who would fit into that category. He wanted to see Viktor again. Wanted to talk with that Idiot about unimportant science stuff for a whole afternoon without reaching a conclusion for the only reason that it would give him something he could see forward to for the next day. He felt how tears filled his eyes over that realization. Yes, he was still against Viktors ways and plans but....maybe that was just how a person was growing up in such a shithole. It was rather impressive that he had still this wish to help these people, he realized, even with the prospect of not being acknowledged in the slightest for what you did.   
Funny. He had knew about the situation in Zaun and Viktors life before the academy. But it only dawned him now what it all really meant.....He closed his eyes. He should have seen that earlier. It would have prevented this whole situation and maybe even the destruction of Viktors and his fragile friendship, or whatever you wanted to call what they had back in the academy. And with his heart filled with regret for the first time in his life he was preparing himself for the fatal blow.  
  
 _Peng_  
  
  
The loud sound was not the sound he had expected to hear. And his eyes shot open as the saw hit the wall next to his head while it's owners lifeless body swayed a few seconds before falling over. He screeched and ducked away as fast as possible so the massive body would not crush him alive and he needed a moment to realize what had just happened. Stanwick had a small bullet wound that penetrated his entire head from the back right out of his forehead. It must have killed him immediately.   
“Nice job nerd!”  
Jayce flinched and his heart felt like it would jump right out of his mouth in that moment. Caitlyn laughed as she stopped next to him, her sniper safe strapped on her back. Her completely black clothes made her almost invisible in the dim lit, cave like environment.   
“I am hunting that chem baron for a while now. Hiding like a rat and more slippery than a snail. Thanks to you he is dead now. Good job”  
She patted him on the shoulder while he stood there, staring at her and with his mouth half agape. He was still in shock and unable to make coherent thoughts. Caitlyn seemed to realize that and was kind enough to help him out. “Vi should check you over tho. That fight looked dangerous enough that one of your older wounds reopened or something like that. Come on” She took his hand and dragged him with her, back up to the higher levels of Piltover.  
_________________________  
  
“So....Only to make sure that I did understand everything right.....the first thing you did after leaving the hospital was running down on the property of one of the strongest chem barons of Piltover, steal from him and than fight him after you almost died the last time you had such a stupid idea?”  
Vi's gaze wandered from Caitlyn to Jayce who sat in her office, cut on his cheek stitched and with an apologetic smile on his face. “Welp.....yea that summarizes it pretty good-”, he said and winced as Vi hit him on the head. Not hard, but hard enough to hurt. “You. Are. An. Absolute. Irresponsible. And. Stupid. Idiot!” Vi huffed, crossing her arms. “Your wounds barely healed. What if something severe had happened?”  
Jayces eyes met Caitlys who only smiled knowingly. She was the only other person who knew exactly how severe the situation really was and she luckily decided to be silent about it. “I am sorry Vi”, Jayce said, looking back to the Doc. “I promise I will not do something that stupid again!”   
She huffed again. “As if I could believe you of all people such a statement. We all know how reckless you get when it is about a new project....But Jayce....Please....be careful. I can only heal so much....I do not want to have to dissect your corpse one day just to find out what stupid idea of yours killed you.”  
He smiled and it was the first time in a long long time that it was genuine. “Thanks Vi....That you care”  
His gaze wandered to the Diary he was clutching in his hands, filled with all his blueprints and plans. He would over think his design. With a little more fine tuning this machine had the potential to help Piltover _and_ Zaun. In both Universes.   
“I will leave Piltover again”, he said and his fingers wandered over the worn leather of the book. “What? Why?”, Vi asked confused over the sudden change of topic.   
“i will need some help with a....problem”, he said and looked up with a smile. “And for that I will need the help from a certain someone”  
Vi smiled. “Let me guess. This Viktor person back in the academy?”   
He nodded. “Yes. He....has a few interesting points of few and I will need that to solve my....predicament.”  
She nodded. “Okay. But you need rest before you can make the journey back up to Zaun”  
Hesitant he nodded and stored the diary back in the pocket of his Jacket. One day more or less would not make a difference. Plus he could use that time to reflect what the hell had happened and what thoughts haunted him since this incident. And he could make a plan how the hell he wanted the next encounter with Viktor to happen.


	2. Viktor

It was the morning of the 25 th of October.  
_  
Everything was dark.  
He was in pain.  
Unending pain.  
He screamed but nobody answered.  
He was alone....  
He coughed and he could taste blood again.   
Pain. Pain. Pain!  
His head, his arms, his legs....his whole body was burning. Please! Just let it stop! LET IT STOP!_   
  
Viktor startled awake. He needed a moment to come to his senses and realize that it was just a bad dream again! The young inventor groaned and sat up while rubbing his temples. He had more of these morbid nightmares lately and he was not able to find anything efficient against them yet. Drugs were out of the picture. He was beyond that and he was not really after another depressive phase again. Plus he needed to be 100% functional at the moment, aka not in a complete state of dizziness and self doubt. So no drugs.   
He yawned and stood up from the chair he was sitting on.   
These last few days and weeks were a complete nightmare. The best word to describe Viktors current situation was: chaos. Or alternatively: a mess.   
After he was kicked out of the academy he fell into a deep and dark hole. Literally and figuratively.   
Zaun was not a place were you wanted to live. Especially when the feelings of betrayal and anger were eating away your mind and soul. He remembered too well how he had crawled into the next best empty building like a kicked dog just to drown in self -pity and doubt. His dreams shattered and thrown away just because this absolute idiot Jayce wanted to make his point.   
Days became weeks and the pain grew bigger and bigger. The first Augmentation he did on himself was more an act of despair than anything else. The pain needed to stop but it was not physical pain. It never was. As alone and broken as he was at that time it was no wonder that his next logical step would be to loose that part of him that was hurt and shattered. But it was not so easy to get rid of your emotions or god forbid your humanity. It was then that a chem explosion destroyed almost an entire district that woke him up from his clouded mind. That remembered him about his real goals. That he wanted to help Zaun and its people. As big of a catastrophe it was it had helped him out of his self digged hole and back into reality.  
“Creator. The machine needs new coolant!”  
Viktor looked over his shoulder toward the robot that meant the world to him. Blitzcrank was his masterpiece and more or less his child.   
“Yea. I'm on my way”, he sighed and stretched his tired bones before he followed Blitzcrank down into the giant halls of his laboratory. Hundreds of injured Zaunites filled this previously unused space and in the back was a giant machine that was connected to every single one of them via tubes and cables. It was supposed to filter the blood of every patient to extract the toxins within and it was powered with the shuriman crystal he had stolen the day before from Jayces workshop.   
His first encounter with Jayce after all this time was a disaster and he was forced to attack his fellow colleague to get the thing. Viktor would have preferred another, less violent, way but this crystal was the only energy source that was strong enough for his project and he needed to be fast when he did not want to loose a single Zaunite. And Jayce, the jerk that he was, was not ready to talk. So violence it was. Again.  
“Is everything alright?”  
The second time this morning Blitzcrank saved him from an unpleasant memory.  
“Yea....How are they?”  
He looked over to the hundreds of beds standing right next to each other.   
“There are a few deaths”, the robot said. “But for the most part they are healing well. Your machine is working as expected creator”   
He smiled and nodded. Then he started to refill the coolant for the machine.   
“Why are you helping them?”  
Surprised Viktor looked down from his position on the top of the machine to Blitzcrank. “Why? Uhm....I guess because I can't stand the thought that people suffer around me when I am able to change that”  
Blitzcrank thought a moment over that statement. “So when you can't help them you do not care?”  
“You see....It is not that simple”  
He smiled and closed the tank after he finished. “Companionship is the word I am searching for. I was born here and so I want to help those who are in a similar situation.”  
“I do not understand”  
“You will. One day!”  
He jumped down and thanks to the hydraulic support he had transplanted into his legs his fall was cushioned enough to not hurt.   
“Emotions are complicated. Not even we humans understand them completely!” He smiled and patted his creation on the shoulder. “And now go and help around the detonation zone, okay?”  
Blitzcrank nodded immediately and waddled out of the building. Proud and filled with something he would call fatherly love he looked after him before he looked back up to the machine next to him. The crystal was glowing in a bright white light in the middle of the metal construct. Once he had helped everyone in here he could use this thing to improve Blitzcranks energy capacity and maybe....  
Suddenly a strong coughing attack shook his body and he cursed silently.  
“I have no time left”, he mumbled and looked down into his now blood stained hand. “I need to hurry....”  
He went back into his room to get his mask and armor. The coolant he had used was the last and he would need to buy new one from a vendor higher up Zauns depths. And on his way up he could search for a few new metal components he would need for his next big project.   
He put on the metal mask and activated the air filter system before he left his laboratory with one last glance over to the machine. It would work for the next few hours without his permanent supervision. The door closed with a loud banging sound and Viktor stood there, in front of the door with his human hand on the handle, for a little while longer.  
What if something happened to the machine while he was away?  
What if hundreds of innocent Zaunites would die because he was not careful enough....He should have told Blitzcrank to get the new coolant on his way back so he could stay with the ill and dying people he was responsible for now. On the other hand....he wanted to go on his own. To flee this bone crushing responsible for a few hours before it dragged him down a dangerous path again. By now he knew how very fragile his psyche really was. He needed that.   
He sighed and turned around. Just this once....  
  
Zaun was as dirty and abandoned as always. After the Chem explosions a lot of rumors started to spread that it was not so much an accident as an example from the chem barons to warn the populace that they were still the major threat in the city. A little reminder that Piltover was not their biggest problem. Viktor could not say if there was some truth behind these rumors or not. But he did not care either. He had other problems at the moment. And the Chem Barons hated him enough already with his idea of helping Zaun out and actually doing something to help. What more then once interfered with their work. He really wanted to hold his head low at the moment. At least for now.   
He reached the higher levels and entered the shop he visited more frequently since he was back in Zaun after his short stay in Piltover. Not all in here was legal but that only meant that they would not ask too many questions.   
“Ah~ Isn't that the infamous glorious Evolution himself?”  
Viktor looked up. The shopkeeper behind the counter was no stranger to the young inventor. He was the owner of this place, a young man with short black hair and a giant scar over his right eye that reached all the way up to his hairline. Viktor had saved his life after the man was robbed from a group of very unfriendly and impatient teenagers a year ago and he was still grateful for that.   
“Oh stop it!”, Viktor grumbled and stopped in front of the counter, arms crossed and his gaze under his mask unreadable. “This whole ,glorious evolution' bullshit is just another stupid fantasy of these weird people who think my augmentations had the goal to ,replace the human race'.” He snorted and shook his head. “I want to improve. Not replace. They are nothing more than crazy fanatics that interpret way too much into anything that happens.”  
The man in front of him laughed. “Oh I know that. But it is still funny! You are like a god to these people!”  
“Maybe” he scoffed with a shrug. “As long as their rambling does not attract the attention of the Chem Barons I do not care. Let them the little bit of hope they are craving for.”  
The man nodded and smiled. “What can I sell you today?”  
Viktors eyes wandered over the shelf's around them. “I need coolant. And do you have a hydraulic joint? The smaller ones?”  
The man eyed him curiously. “Another augmentation?”, he asked while he turned around to bring the wished items to the counter. Viktor shook his head. “my arm makes a few problems since the Chem explosion. I need to swap the joint and hope that this will help”   
He paid and the man put everything into a bag. “Was that all?” Viktor nodded and took the bag.   
“Yea. Thanks a lot.”  
“No problem, mister machine herald~”  
“Oh shut up”  
He left the store with a smile. Not that anyone would be able to see it.

  
  


It happened shortly after his arrival back in his lab. The double doors to his laboratory were punched out of their hinges with such force that they flew through half of the room and kicked several ill and unconscious Zaunites out of their beds. But their screams drowned into the ear splitting sound the alarm made once it detected the intruder. “What-” Viktor needed a moment to realize what had happened. And then he saw him. The person he hated the most. Jayce. He stood there, shock and disgust written all over his face and a giant hammer....cannon? in his hands.  
“Jayce what on earth are you doing?”  
“How dare you...”  
Jayces voice trembled and his eyes glowed with unreadable emotions.  
“You...always said that you wanted to save your people and not....not that!”  
Viktor had no clue what Jayce was talking about. He WAS saving them. But as far as he knew Jayce thought that he was believing these stupid rumors and that he was building an army of robots that had implanted souls in them or something. For a genius Jayce tended to be really stupid unfortunately. And when Viktor learned anything from their encounter yesterday then it was that Jayce would stick to his believes and that he was not ready to goddamn listen for once! So he had only one thing he could do to prevent Jayce from killing all these people because his, from selfishness and arrogance controlled, mind thought that he was harming them.   
His eyes wandered to the automatons he had stored in the back of the room in case he would need to save someone with a last second brain transfer because their body would give up. They were only empty husks but still fully functional...He needed to react fast!  
“Kill him!”, he said and pressed a button right next to him. All automatons awoke almost immediately and started to run towards Jayce who seemed puzzled at first. But then realization kicked in and his hammer hit the first robot, shattering it in thousand pieces. Viktor cursed. He recognized the power source inside that weapon. It was a piece of the crystal he had stolen! Jayce must have broken it of before he came to analyze it! This hammer was dangerous but Jayce was outnumbered immensely. More and more of his precious automatons were destroyed and thrown through the room before Jayce was finally pressed to the ground. But Viktor had only a moment to sigh relieved before Jayce screamed and in an immense burst of power from his weapon freed himself again, destroying everything in an 1 meter radius around him in the process. Viktor cursed as he saw how several Zaunites were killed in that moment and more rage and anger filled his mind.   
“VIKTOR!”  
His gaze shot forward. Jayce was running towards him with raised weapon. He grabbed his staff that was laying next to him on the table and blocked the attack in the last second. The hit was so strong that he heard how the metal of the augmentations of his legs and arm made a protesting groaned under the force and he felt how they even started to bend a little. He cursed again and his eyes met Jayces.   
“JAYCE! YOU IDIOT YOU KILLED THEM!”, he screamed and charged his staff. The orb on top filling with energy. Jayce was ready and jumped backwards but Viktor was quick to follow. His staff hit Jayces hammer as he blocked his attack and the electricity traveled through both weapons. Not inflicting any damage because Jayce was wearing his stupid gloves.   
“You mean I killed your army of mindless robot slaves!”, Jayce hissed and pushed Viktor away from him. He stumbled backwards, surprised by the pure strength Jayce could use and was not able to react as Jayce ran towards him. He could only stare as the other man screamed and jumped into the air, nozzles on the end of the hammer helping him to gain height, and with a giant swing over his head and the momentum the weapon had he slammed the hammer right into his chest.   
Pain.....pain, pain, pain!   
He screamed as pain filled all his senses and thoughts. He was hurled from his feet and onto the ground in mere milliseconds and the punch was so hard that he felt how several ribs broke and even the ground under him shattered into a little crater.  
No clear thought was able to reach his mind in that moment and panic filled him. Take it away! TAKE IT AWAY!  
He screamed again and the laser on his third arm fired uncontrollably at anything around him.   
TAKE IT AWAY! TAKE THE PAIN AWAY!  
He felt how Jayce jumped away from him and with him the constant pressure on his destroyed ribs. He was able to think clearly. At least for a few moments. It was enough. Even before Jayce landed on the floor he was able to shoot his gravitation device under his feet and the moment he touched it he was paralyzed. The other inventor cursed and tried to free himself while Viktor sorted his thoughts and fought against the pain and the panic who were both screaming in his head. The injury was not lethal. God bless his metal ribs for that. He struggled to stand up and tumbled towards his greatest enemy. Blood dripping out of his mouth indicating that Jayces hit most likely injured some organs. He would deal with that later.   
“You bastard!”, he mumbled and winced as a shock of pain shot through his body. Half of his mask broke and Jayce could see how miserable he was. That was more than he deserved.   
“Do you even know what you have done?”  
Another shock of pain and he felt how he was close to losing his consciousness. Not now....he needed to end this now!  
“I will kill you!”, he said and raised his still human hand. He had picked up a shard of splintered metal on his way over to Jayce and he would use it to cut his throat open. It would be a fast death. Again: more than that bastard deserved! Jayces sky blue eyes burned with hatred as he stared down at him. So...so different from the eyes Viktor knew from their time together at the academy. When they shone with excitement and curiosity...  
“Then do it!”, Jayce hissed. “I knew from the beginning that one of us would die. I just hoped....I would be able to stop you before I die....before you could hurt more innocent people.”  
Viktor stopped and stared up to him. He knew that Jayce thought he was doing something shady and evil down here but what made him so angry that he was ready to die for it? Even when his assumptions would be right he was talking about a bunch of Zaunites. Why would he give two fucks about the people he so stubbornly tried to ignore in the first place?  
“What are you talking abou-”  
All of a sudden an immense quake shook the building and the floor started to break apart under them. Viktor screamed in surprise and the device that hold Jayce died down, letting an enraged Jayce free. More bones cracked and metal broke as Jayce swung his hammer at him again and he was only able to protect himself by crossing his arms in front of him. They broke almost immediately and he screamed as new pain flared through his nervous system. Jayce placed the end of the handle onto his sternum to hold him down. “In the name of Piltover and all it's citizens”, he huffed out of breath from this intense fight. “I will-”  
“WATCH OUT!”  
It was as if time was slowed down. He saw the giant block of concrete that fell from the ceiling over Jayce and reacted out of pure instinct as he pushed his former friend out of harms way.   
A loud crashing sound filled the laboratory and white, burning pain filled Viktors senses once more. The bolder had crushed his legs completely under its weight and the pain of the injuries he had from the fight prior blinded him. His mind screamed and he felt nauseous as he saw how his thighs disappeared under the heavy concrete.   
“Why did you...”  
Jayces voice trembled and it was clear that he was as confused as Viktor felt over his action. “You bloody idiot!”, he cursed and looked up. His artificial eyes flickering as he switched in and out of consciousness for a few seconds. “The whole building will collapse! We do not know how the crystal will react if the machine blows up....” he coughed and blood sprinkled the floor beneath him. “Save as many as you can! Bring the ones who are still alive out of here you bastard!”   
Another quake shook the building and the cracks in the floor almost reached the machine now.   
“GO NOW!”, Viktor screamed but before Jayce could stand up and run a rock that fell from the ceiling crashed into the machine that stored part of the Shuriman crystal. The sound of metal that was torn apart filled the room and Viktor screamed in horror as a bright light flooded the lab and washed away everything. The pain, the panic and everything else.  
  
___________________  
  
_Everything was dark.  
He was in pain.  
Numb pain.  
Nausea.   
Panic.  
  
_ “We need more air! NOW!”  
“Yes doctor!”  
“And can someone bring me a bone saw for fucks sake!”  
“Y....Yes!”  
“Oh he wakes up!”  
Bright light blinded him and he tried to hold his hand over his face. But his hands did not want to cooperate at all. Panic started to fill his mind. Were was he? What had happened? Oh yea Jayce that idiot had ruined his life once more and had blown his whole laboratory into pieces. And now? He should be dead. The machine had exploded and....now?  
“We need more sedative!”  
The voice was from a man and it was close. And somehow familiar....  
“Viktor? Can you hear me?”   
He nodded and closed his eyes. The lights hurt so much.....even his artificial eyes were not able to dim it enough.  
“Very nice. That means that your head was not hurt. What a relieve!”  
He felt a stinging pain in his right arm and frowned. A needle...  
“Don't worry professor. We will fix your other injuries in no time! I could never forgive myself if I let Zauns greatest inventor die!”  
Professor? No one had ever called him that. But before he could ask any questions he felt how his consciousness drifted away once more. And like that he fell into another, dreamless slumber.  
  
“Will he wake up soon?”  
“Yea. Do not worry Blitzcrank. I made the operations personally. He was really bad injured but we were able to fix anything thanks to your Dads own inventions~”  
“I am glad to hear that!”  
“Oh look! He is waking up!”  
Viktor could feel that someone sat down next to him onto the bed he was lying in. It was so soft and numbed the pain he felt in his whole body. He felt so weak and exhausted that he almost fell back asleep again.   
“Dad! How do you feel?”  
Confused he opened his eyes and was met with two visitors. One seemed to be a doctor. The one that had talked with him before if his voice was any indication. He stood a few feet away from his bed and smiled. And Viktor needed a moment to realize that he was the man from the shop he had visited earlier. Just....cleaner and with a reassuring smile. What was going on?  
His eyes wandered to the person sitting next to him. It was a young man with short brown hair and concerned, yellow eyes....Yellow? Viktor stared at them and realized that they looked like his own artificial ones. They eyed him with concern and that was when he realized something else. By closer inspection he saw that the skin and hair of this man looked artificial as well. He had worked for a while on synthetic skin and hair to hide his augmentations. So no one would talk about the end of humanity all the time when they saw him. But this was on a complete other level. Fascinated he laid a hand on this mans cheeks and it confirmed his assumptions. It was very close but it was no human skin.   
“Dad?”  
The man stared at him, with even more concern written all over his face. If that was what he thought it was then was this man who called him dad...  
“Blitzcrank?”  
The mans face lit up and he nodded happily. “Yeas dad it's me! So you can remember me?”  
Viktor stared at him. Confused but so so curious.   
“How long...”  
“Weeks! I don't know exactly how long but I was so worried when I found you like this in your workshop.”  
He looked him over and Viktor followed every movement with interest. He looked so...human. And he acted like one too! How was this change possible in a few weeks?  
“What happened?”, he asked while Blitzcrank smiled happily. His smile fell a little bit. “We are not sure. We assume it was an explosion from an experiment. But whatever it was it shattered your legs completely and injured your ribs and lungs. We had hoped that you could tell us what happened”  
Viktor frowned and tried to remember every detail from the accident. “The machine.....the Zaunites are they okay?”  
Now both of his visitors seemed confused.  
“Excuse me what?”, asked the Doctor and came closer.   
“I....I had a lot of Zaunites in my lab because....the Chem explosion...and....”  
“Chem explosion? You were in Piltover?”  
“What? No it was....”  
He stopped and for the first time he started to look around. And he realized that there was no way that this was a hospital in Zaun. It was far too clean and well equipped for that.   
“Were am I? Is this Piltover? Why am I here? Was it Jayce?” He looked over to the other two. “If he thinks that I owe him anything just because he saved me he is wrong!”  
“Jayce?”  
The Doctor and Blitzcrank exchanged a concerned gaze before Blitz turned back to Viktor.   
“Was it him? He was extremely angry after we kicked him out of the academy”  
“What the hell are you talking abo-”  
He stopped as a violent coughing attack overcame him and he cursed as he tasted blood again.   
“About that”  
He looked up as the Doctor pushed his round glasses higher up his nose. “After we fixed everything we ran a few tests and found an unnatural amount of toxic residue in your lungs.”  
Viktor nodded. He knew about this. It was something that just happens when you grew up in the deepest parts of Zaun without any protection against the toxic fumes. “It is not lethal. Yet. But I can not say how this happened in the first place. Were you visiting your old friend down there without a mask? If yes I must say that you need to stop that or we can't safe your lungs.”  
Blitzcrank laid a hand on Viktors shoulder and the young inventor could feel how he trembled. Fascinating.  
“Why dad? Are you two still friends or did you visit him out of pity?”  
This conversation was getting weirder and weirder with every passing second and Viktor felt how his head started to throb. The Doctor seemed to see his discomfort. “Blitzcrank. Maybe we should spare the more complicated questions for later. Your father just woke up. Let him rest a little bit”  
The robot nodded and took his fathers hand in his own. “Can I stay? I do not want to leave him in here all alone”  
The Doctor looked over to his patient with a questioning look and Viktor nodded. Whatever was going on it was easier to find out with this new Blitzcrank next to him. Said robot smiled happily and pressed his hand slightly in a loving manner.   
“Everything is going to be okay dad”, he said. “I promise”  
  
Viktor learned a lot over the next few months he spend in the hospital with his son. He did not leave even once and answered all his questions without suspicion.   
First of all: He was not in his dimension or timeline. Viktor could not really explain how but it seemed that the explosion of the crystal had somehow transported him straight into an alternative Universe. He did not know if Jayce was also here but for the time being he assumed that he was.   
He learned that this Universe was like his own. Only that Zaun and Piltover swapped places. Zaun was now the city on top and Piltover was the city suffering under their influence. It was a really weird thought and he felt extremely uncomfortable whenever his mind wandered down to the people of this Piltover.  
Another thing he learned was that he had replaced a Viktor from this Universe and he hoped that the other Viktor was currently in his Universe and not just....overwritten or something horrible like that. And it was his other self that had created Blitzcrank. And with him a hundred other human like robots that helped out everywhere in Zaun. So that was what he was capable of with the right resources and enough time? It was fascinating to say the least. To imagine a Viktor that grew up in a normal family in a happy town. But with the same interests and passions. So was the Jayce of this world as cocky and self centered as the one he knew? So many questions he had no answers for.   
Another fascinating thing was that the mechanical parts he had in his body were all almost completely invisible to the untrained eyes. As he had planned they were much smaller now and hidden under layers of artificial skin. Only someone who knew about it would see the small line were the fake skin ended and the real one started.   
“Good news dad! You are allowed to leave the hospital today!”  
Viktor looked up from the book he was reading and smiled as he saw his son entering the room with a bright smile. “The Doc said that you will need to rest a little bit more but you can come back home for that! Isn't that cool?”  
The robot sometimes was like a small child and Viktor felt how his heart warmed up every time it happened. He was so precious.....A real wonder of technology indeed.   
“That sounds nice!”, he said with a smile and for the first time in his life he looked forward to coming home. From what Blitzcrank had told him he was a Professor in the academy in this universe and therefore lived in a big house not far from the campus. His workshop was right next to it and it was stocked with everything Viktor could ask for. He was already thinking about different projects he would love to start as soon as he got the ok from the Doctor.   
“How do you feel?”  
Blitzcrank pulled him out of his thoughts and he smiled as his son eyed him curious and happy.  
“Way better. The Doc made a really good job stitching me back together. I may even be able to walk on my own” He tested his now fully mechanical legs and they worked perfectly. “As expected from your work”, Blitz said proud. “But I would still prefer to carry you home dad. Just as long as you are so weak”  
Viktor smiled and nodded. “Sure. As long as it is no inconvenience for you...”  
“Dad.”  
Blitz laid a hand over his own.  
“Never!”  
Viktor smiled and nodded. Then he wrapped his arms around Blitzcranks neck and the robot lifted him out of the bed without any problem.   
“Let's go home~”  
  
During his stay at the hospital Viktor had tried to imagine how this other Zaun would look like. His room had no windows and for the most time he had just assumed that it looked like the Piltover from his Universe. But no. It was still Zauns architecture with its complex and chaotic high buildings and with way too many pipes everywhere. But it was clean and the sunlight flooded every single street and corner of the city. It was so surreal but so wonderful at the same time. “Wow”, he mumbled and Blitz laughed. “It's not  _that_ breathtaking dad”, he said as he entered a giant house. And it was as wonderful as Viktor had expected. Big, light flooded rooms with rows of books in shelf's everywhere. A perfect place to relax and think over new projects and plans. “Do not even think about going to work already!”, Blitzcrank warned him but smiled as he saw his fathers disappointment.  
“I assure you that you will not suffer any boredom my dear friend!”  
Viktor flinched and looked over to the door that seemed to lead to the garden and he felt how his heart stuttered for a moment as he saw who was standing there.   
“Singed?!”, he stammered as Blitzcrank puts him down. The man in front of them was tall, his raven black hair combed back and the gold framed round glasses on his hooked nose shimmered in the morning sun that fell through the door behind him. Viktor remembered how Singed was before all his experiments with the Chemicals in Zaun had changed him forever and this person in front of him was a perfect replica of this version of the mad chemist. Just more clean and wearing a fine suit with green and gold accents.   
“You seem surprised”, Singed said, amused. Viktor had stopped working with Singed the moment he went crazy over his own projects and his obsession with chemistry. Funny, now that he thought about it. He ended up being obsessed in his own idea in the end. What twisted irony that was....  
“How do you feel?”, Singed asked as Viktor did not answer and would not stop to stare at him. “I heard of your accident. I am happy that nothing....permanent was damaged.”  
“Uh....yea”, Viktor answered a little bit lame before he coughed and straightened himself into a more respectable position. “But I am not completely unscathed unfortunately. I lost most of my memories from before the incident.”  
Singed frowned and eyed him with concern. “Oh I see. Well then we should work on new memories, hm?” He smiled and made a small bow. “Let's introduce myself for the start. I am Professor Singed. I am teaching Chemistry in the local Academy and we are colleagues. We worked together in a few projects and after that we developed a romantic relationship and started to date” He grinned mischievously and Viktor felt how he turned red like a tomato.   
“W....What?”, he stammered and Singed laughed. “Nah I am just kidding~ We are colleagues though and good friends I would say. But I was never smart enough to fill the place Jayce left behind when he left unfortunately”

“Jayce?”  
Immediately Viktor calmed down and his mood swung from embarrassing to curious. He wanted to learn more about these worlds inhabitants. Especially the alternative version of his arch enemy.   
“Yea Jayce”, Singed sighed as he pushed his glasses higher up his nose. “He was your closest friend in the academy. You two shared classes, worked together and argued a lot. Rivals through and through but everyone knew that you were just teasing each other. There was never a real argue between you two. In a way you completed each other pretty well. And he was the only one who was able to keep up when you started to ramble about your projects and hypothesis's. After he left you were....lost for a while. I don't know how much is true but rumors spreaded that Jayce and you had a fight before he went back to Piltover. A real one this time.” He shrugged. “Jayce always was a little bit self centered and unable to accept criticism.”  
“That sounds about right”, Viktor huffed and looked away. So this worlds Jayce was not so different like the one back in his universe...  
“Yea. But he is a good guy”, Singed said and Viktor looked up. “He tried to help his people since he came to Zaun. It may be questionable if his methods were the right ones but his intent was always noble.”  
Well that was new. “I see.”, he mumbled and all of a sudden realization hit him with such a strength that he forgot to breath completely. He had not lost a single thought about the people that now lived under horrible conditions down in this Universes Piltover since he woke up in this weird and twisted environment. He was so focused on new ideas now that he had access to every resource he needed that he totally forgot that there were still people that suffered. After he learned that Piltover and Zaun swapped places he was so disturbed by the thought that he had pushed it aside and forgot about it. And he realized just how easy it was to forget the bad when you were surrounded by love and happiness. When you were not permanently remembered that there were dying children directly under your feet.   
“Dad?”  
Blitzcrank laid a hand on his shoulder and he flinched out of his train of thoughts. He felt so disgusted all of a sudden. He was so happy these last few months....Zaun was finally flourishing and people he knew wandered happy and laughing through the streets of a clean and safe city. But they had not solved the predicament. It was just someone else's problem now. After only a few days he made all the mistakes he had accused Jayce of doing back in the academy. But now he understood. Ignoring the obvious was so much easier when you are permanently blinded by the light of your own greatness.  
“DAD!?”  
He ran. He ran until he was no longer able to and collapsed in front of a railing that allowed a peak into the city below. A Piltover that was abused and used as a garbage dump for the upper city.  
His hands clung around the bars of the railing until his knuckles turned white and he screamed. Screamed and sobbed until his throat was sore He didn't even noticed that the sun had disappeared behind a thick layer of clouds and that it had started to rain at some point.   
“Are you happy now?”  
Viktor turned around as a familiar voice rang out behind him. He was wearing a long mantle and hood but the young man would recognize these sky blue eyes everywhere.   
“Jayce....”, he mumbled breathless. Silence fell over the two former colleagues and the loud sound of the rain pattering onto the stone and concrete around them was almost unbearable for Viktor.   
“You look like a mess”, Jayce said finally after he eyed Viktor for a while and came closer. He stopped next to him and leaned against the railing. Eyes still glued to his old friend and rival. Face cold and serious. “So what do you think?”  
Viktor sniffed and stood up. Even when his legs almost refused to hold his weight. He grasped the railing and used it as support. “What do you mean?” He wiped away his tears as good as possible even if it was completely unnecessary because the constant rain would hide them well enough anyway.   
“Piltover and Zaun.”, Jayce answered and looked down to the city below in all it's dirty and toxic glory. “That they swapped places”  
He looked up again and blue met yellow as they stared at each other. So this was the Jayce from his universe, Viktor thought. And he was probably testing if he was the Viktor he knew.  
“It is not what I wanted to archive”, he answered and lowered his gaze in shame. “I...thought it was. Until I realized what it meant for the people of Piltover.”  
He looked up again and was surprised to see Jayce smile. “So you ended here as well, hm?” he asked and Viktor nodded. “After the explosion I woke up in a hospital here in Zaun. I stayed there for a few month until I recovered enough.”   
Jayce eyed him again. “They did a good job”, he said. “Doesn't look like you lost your legs a few month ago” His voice was filled with a little bit of anger and sarcasm. “The new city of innovation must be really advanced in building prostheses. I wonder why”   
Viktor sighed again and closed his eyes. He understood Jayces anger. Oh he was so angry at himself for letting the happiness blind himself for so long.  
“I am sorry”  
“What?”  
“I am sorry!”  
He turned towards Jayce. His eyes filled with sadness. “I...always wished for a better life for the people in Zaun. But this” He made a wide gesture with his arms, pointing at the city around them. “I never wanted this.”  
“Then what _did_ you want?”, Jayce asked. Viktor hesitated. “I....do not know anymore”, he said in all honesty. “A world were everyone is happy perhaps?”  
Jayce huffed. “What a childish dream”  
“I know....Whatever we do someone will suffer. That is how humans are I guess”  
“So we need to replace them?”, Jayce teased and Viktor threw an angry glare over to him. “No! But....ungh I don't know...”  
He buried his face into his hands and sighed. “I just don't know...” He sounded so broken in that moment and he felt how his heart ached and started to drown in the helplessness again he knew far too well from his time after he left Piltover all this time ago. The rain fell mercilessly down at them and soaked his hair and clothes. But he could not care less at the moment.   
A few seconds of silence filled the air once again in which Viktor fell deeper and deeper into a vortex of depression and sadness.   
Then he heard footsteps coming closer and a second later the rain stopped hammering onto his head and back. Confused he looked up and saw Jayce holding his Jacket over his head to protect him from the rain. He smiled and his eyes shone with something Viktor could not decipher. “Maybe there is a way”, he said and laughed as he saw Viktors confused face. “You are not the only one who learned something these last few months you know!” He smiled and saw away almost....embarrassed? “I guess I understand now why you acted like you did back in the academy”, he confessed and threw the jacket over Viktors head as he did not stop to stare at him in disbelieve. “And you seem to understand what blinded me all these years.” Viktor nodded and clung to the far too big jacket that was now wrapped around him. It was so comfortably warm...  
“There is just one thing I do not understand”  
He looked up as Jayce leaned against the railing right next to him again. “Why did you start to hurt yourself? I mean I understand that you think that machines are somewhat better than humans. But why replacing a fully functional arm instead of only improving it from the outside like you did with your legs?”  
Viktor was silent for a few seconds. Then he smiled. “It hurts”  
“Excuse me?”  
“It hurts....to be human”  
His voice was so weak that it almost got lost in the loud sound the rain produced around them.   
“I wanted to get rid of it. All the emotions. They make us weak and are standing in our way. Emotions are useless and unnecessary.”  
He felt Jayces gaze on him and tried his best to look away. “Machines are so much better. They have no emotions that hold them back. They think rational and can create the best possible outcome to a problem with the right decisions. So why....”  
He started to tremble and he was no longer sure if it was from the cold caused by his wet clothes or something completely different. “Why did Blitzcrank always tried to understand and archive these useless ability called emotions? And why is the perfect version of him equipped with it? Why? WHY?”  
Arms. Strong warm arms wrapped around his thin frame and he froze as Jayce hugged him. Burrowing his face in his messy and wet brown hair and pressing him close to his chest.   
They stood there like that for a few moments before Jayces weak voice broke the silence.   
“Do you remember the time back in the academy?”, he asked and Viktor tensed. Still unable to move an inch. “You were so nervous on your first day and everyone teased you because you came from Zaun. I did it too because I was....confused. Humans tend to hate change. And a Zaunite in Piltovers Academy was something new. But then you proved to everyone how unbelievable stubborn and persistent you could be and proved with a single project how far over their IQ you were” Jayce laughed as Viktor pouted and looked away in embarrassment. “It was hilarious. The face the Professor made as he was not able to follow you equations and ideas. I was the only one who could and we discussed your presentation for hours after that class. Remember?”  
Viktor nodded and leaned a little bit into Jayces embrace. He could remember every single detail of that evening. He could feel the sun on his skin, the dust that danced in her orange rays and the apricot colored sky behind dirty windows. And he remembered a warm feeling in his chest while he argued with Jayce. The first time someone was able to answer his question and question his answers.   
“So what did you feel in that moment”, Jayce said and he swiped a few wet strands of hair out of Viktors face. His cheeks were slightly red and Viktor felt how his own heated up. “I....” He looked away and Jayce laughed. “Come on. Was it that bad?” “Nooooo!”, Viktor whined and he burried his face in Jayces clothes. The taller one was teasing him again. He hated it when he does this!  
“This is why humans keep their emotions.”, Jayce explained and let go of the shorter man. “Companionship, friendship, love. Happiness, enjoyment, excitement. All these things may be irrational and sometimes they end in bad emotions. But they are worth it! Because they give us a goal we want to archive!”  
He smiled and looked back down into the depths of Piltover.  
“Your wish to safe the people of Zaun. To bring justice to those who suffered. All these goals you acquired over all these years are fueled by emotions. A robot would never think about such thinks. Why should it? And yea they stand in our way sometimes but I think that it is worth it, right?”  
He smiled and looked back to Viktor who did not know what to think. Jayce was right. In some way. He was still convinced that emotions were a burden and that without them he would be able to work faster and more efficient. But it was true that they kept him going. Even as he was at his deepest point in life it was the strong feeling to help that saved him from his suffering.   
“I believe that you experienced too much pain and suffering to understand what I mean”, Jayce said and Viktor looked up. “Maybe.”, he said. “But after these few month here in this Zaun I may be able to understand you a little bit better”  
Jayce grinned his smug smile and Viktor felt the strong urge to punch it out of his face.  
“So I was right after all hm?”, he said grinning and Viktor grunted, not accepting his defeat. “I told you! Back in the academy. I told you that your ideas will end in madness and I was right! You removed your arm because you thought it would help to stop the pain! Pfff!”  
“JUST BECAUSE I WAS KICKED OUT BECAUSE OF YOU BASTARD!”  
“Yea yea sweetheart whatever you say!”  
“Youuuu!”  
Away was the atmosphere of friendship and understanding but it was replaced by the lighthearted one he knew from their time back in the academy.  
“DAD!”  
Both man looked up. Blitzcrank ran into their direction and stopped in front of them. “Dad are you okay?! I was searching you everywhere!”   
His eyes fell upon Jayce who was leaning against the railing again. “Uh....Isn't that Jayce?”  
Viktor sighed and smiled. “Yea. In all his dumb and selfish glory”   
“Hey!”  
The three of them laughed. “And you are?”, Jayce asked after Blitzcrank checked Viktor for potential new injuries and the robot looked up. “I...”  
“I will introduce you two after we went back home” Viktor interrupted his sentence and threw the now wet jacket back to Jayce. “It is getting cold out here and I would love a cup of tea!”  
Jayce and Blitzcrank looked at each other before they smiled and nodded.  
“Sure”, Blitzcrank said and opened the umbrella he brought with him. “Sounds nice”, Jayce added as he put his Jacket back on. “We have a lot to talk about anyways”


End file.
